The Lure of the Land: A Social History of the Public Lands from the Articles of Confederation to the New Deal

SECOND IN IMPORTANCE ONLY to the preservation of life on the frontier was
the security of ownership of one's tract of land, which required an effective
system of surveys. In the following pages I shall attempt to trace the rise
and application of the surveying scheme of the national government, together with the problems incident to marking the land. No attempt will be
made to follow the process chronologically.

The colonial conception had varied from the muddle in Virginia to the
more efficient procedure of New England and North Carolina, but in Kentucky and in the Virginia Military Reserve in Ohio the chaos of the
Old Dominion prevailed. According to this custom the land hunter ranged
at will in the forest, "running out" the richest tracts according to his fancy
and recording the surveys. This led to a hodgepodge of claims that were
irregular in size and shape; half a dozen tracts sometimes overlapped or
infringed upon one another.1

In New England, the land was surveyed in rectangular townships, six to
ten miles square, before the land was occupied; and a variation of this
system was carried to the Western Reserve by Connecticut emigrants.
Each township, five miles square, was divided into quarters, known as
sections, which contained about three thousand acres each.

The old decrepit Congress set up by the Articles of Confederation passed
two of the most important and far-reaching laws in United States history:
the Ordinance of 1785 and the Northwest Ordinance of 1787. The former
ordinance adopted the system of survey thereafter used on the public lands
of the United States. Thomas Jefferson, the chairman of the committee
which drew up the law, is generally given credit for its merits; but Hugh
Williamson of North Carolina, a member of the committee, claimed that
the plan was his, and certain likenesses between the Carolina plan and the
Ordinance of 1785 lend credence to his claim. The act, which was passed

Notes for this page

Questia, a part of Gale, Cengage Learning. www.questia.comPublication information:
Book title: The Lure of the Land:A Social History of the Public Lands from the Articles of Confederation to the New Deal.
Contributors: Everett Dick - Author.
Publisher: University of Nebraska Press.
Place of publication: Lincoln, NE.
Publication year: 1970.
Page number: 19.

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